Wax Filament

[curious aardvark]

looking pretty good :-)

[Wes@MachWax]

For your intended purpose of casting, no. But why not broaden its market by getting certified at some point and then branching out into the culinary market. AFAIK, the only thing available in that market is the ChefJet which has yet to ship. Since you are working with low temperature source material, chocolate, butter, even stuff like fondant could be in your grasp.

I have inquired with the boss about this for our other wax blends, the answer I was given was that direct food contact certification is costly, and also adds a liability issue.

looking pretty good :-)

Thank you!

[Wes@MachWax]

Last week, we sent out a few spools for testing. One of the gentlemen agreed to cast that Yoda print for me. I wanted to smooth it out a bit, so I made a new print @ 50micron. I also tried some techniques to smooth the surface finish. I kept getting a hole in the same spot on the neck. I think the .stl I got from thingiverse is the cause of this. Because of this, I also tested to see how well it takes additive wax. This wasn't a parameter we had in mind when designing the filament, but I was pleased with how easy it was to bind new wax to the old wax. We don't have proper tools for this, so I improvised by using a lamp dimmer, and the soldering iron that I like the least for that task. I also tried a candle, and some dental picks, but I preferred the soldering iron over this method.

The order was kept for all pictures. They were just rotated 90 degrees between takes.

These are before any manipulation. Some with the supports still attached.


And post op. The far left had the neck hole filled, and polished a little with a shop towel, and mineral spirits. The middle one was brutally assaulted with a heat gun. I tried to be gentle, but it melted a bit more than I would have liked. A pen type heat gun would have probably done better than the full size I was using. The right side one was filled in the neck area, as well as the ear holes. I also built the ears up to make up for the pieces that came off with the support pieces. I also polished this one a little with mineral spirits. The right one is the only one that was printed at 50 micron. The other two were at 200 micron.

[LambdaFF]

Your product is interesting. Let me know when commercialised.

[wenganxiang]

What is the temperature? Need glue on hot bed?

[Wes@MachWax]

The extrusion temp so far seems to range between 135°C, and 145°C depending on the printer. I have been using hair spay on 75°C glass for adhesion. I have been told that gluing a sheet of regular printer paper to the bed worked well too.

[curious aardvark]

you shouldn't need glue. Wax doesn't warp and sticks to pretty much everything.
Blue tape should be fine.

Those yodas look really good.

Any idea on the actual cost of the final product ?
I can see this stuff really taking off.

[Wes@MachWax]

Thanks. I am hoping to see the one in brass in the next couple days. Super excited for that!

We don't have a final price yet.

There will be spools, and a pellet form available.

[Wolfie]

For repairs, have you considered making your wax product into the proper diameter for a low temp glue gun? Low temp guns run at 120 °C and high temp ones run up to 190 °C which might be too much for your wax.

You can get low temp guns at almost any hobby store as well as Joanns and Michaels for only three bucks. If you made your wax product into the same length/ diameter as the glue sticks and at a melting temp in the range of the low temp guns, those cheap tools could be used to extrude your product for repairs. It could also be leveraged for adding spews for casting. Thoughts? Or even other creative venues outside 3D printing.

[Wes@MachWax]

For repairs, have you considered making your wax product into the proper diameter for a low temp glue gun? Low temp guns run at 120 °C and high temp ones run up to 190 °C which might be too much for your wax.

You can get low temp guns at almost any hobby store as well as Joanns and Michaels for only three bucks. If you made your wax product into the same length/ diameter as the glue sticks and at a melting temp in the range of the low temp guns, those cheap tools could be used to extrude your product for repairs. It could also be leveraged for adding spews for casting. Thoughts? Or even other creative venues outside 3D printing.

Not a bad idea. We may give that a try.